A Demon's Wrath: Part II (Peachville High Demons) (13 page)

“And how do you think we’re ever going
to find out?” I asked. “The only way is to go over there
ourselves and get the answers we seek.”

“I agree with Denaer,” Jericho said.
It was the first time he had spoken since we first gathered together
in the library. “I think it’s worth a shot. We don’t
have to start a fight or even attack anyone. We just send someone
through to gather information and then bring them back.”

“We all know who would go through,”
Azira said, looking to me. “I think losing you is too much of a
risk right now. Maybe we should spend a few years gathering more
information about this particular portal. If we could observe a few
of their rituals, maybe we could find out something specific about
the witches who operate that portal.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t wait years. I
had already waited far too long.

I listened to the others argue and debate, trying
to look patient and understanding. But inside, I was losing my mind.
How could we even be debating this? After fifty long years, I finally
knew where my brother was. There was no way I would sit back and
watch while more demons were pulled through that portal. For what?
Research?

Screw research. We had done enough watching and
waiting.

It was time to act.

“Denaer?” Lea’s voice pulled me
from my thoughts. I had been sitting with my head cupped between my
hands, shaking my head furiously from side-to-side.

I realized now everyone was watching me. Waiting
to hear what I would have to say.

I swallowed, looking to her with questions in my
eyes.

She gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry,”
she said. “The council agrees that we need more time. More
information.”

I sat back, then studied the faces of my friends
sitting around the table. My heart filled with sorrow and rage. I had
no words. No final plea. They had already heard what I had to say and
they had still decided against me.

I placed my hands flat against the top of the
table as ice gathered on my fingertips. I stood, then shook my head.

I slammed my hand down on the table and ice
cracked like glass, shattering and spraying in all directions across
the top of the table. I turned and shifted, leaving the room before
anyone could stop by. I felt completely abandoned.

I had nothing more to say to them. If they
wouldn’t help me, I would have to go alone.

I flew through the tall corridor, wanting to go
straight to the portal and charge through. I wanted to force them to
give my brother back to me.

But I knew that was impossible.

I couldn’t save my brother simply by force
of will. These witches weren’t going to hand him over simply
because I asked. But knowing where he was, how could I live another
minute without going after him?

The floor iced over as I passed, frost spreading
up the wall like growing vines.

I flew toward the only place where I knew I could
let out my frustration without hurting anyone. The training rooms.

The training hall was empty this time of morning
and I went into the first room, slamming the door behind me. I lifted
Aerden’s axe from the strap across my back and initiated the
battle sequence Lea had set up. One of her abilities was to create
illusions of warriors. We had used these illusions to simulate real
battles. That was Andros’ idea. He’d been saying from the
beginning that a great warrior was best trained by fighting great
opponents.

So why was he so hesitant to fight against the
Order?

How were we ever going to become great warriors if
we were too afraid to face them? How would we ever make a difference?

The battle illusions began and four witches
appeared in the different corners of the room.

I focused my rage on their human faces, wanting to
destroy every human that ever lived. Wanting to wipe them from
existence for their evil. I lifted the axe and flew through the air,
gathering my power in my hands so that the entire axe became encased
in a thick layer of cold blue ice. I approached the witch from above,
bringing my weapon down on her head, splitting her in two. The
illusion fell to the floor, then vanished.

I holstered the axe and turned to the second
witch, shifting to smoke as she set her eyes on me and cast a spell
that would have paralyzed me. I snaked around the edges of the room,
finding a stretch of shadows to hide inside before coming around
behind her. I reformed before she even had time to turn toward me,
then placed both of my hands on her shoulders. As a human, she had no
ability to shift and slip from my grip.

I took a deep breath in, gathering hatred from my
heart before blowing the air back out toward the back of her head.
She only had time to slightly angle her head toward me before her
body froze, ice crystals forming on her pale skin. I moved around in
front of her, then clenched my hand into a fist. With all my
strength, I punched her in the center of her stomach. A loud crack
echoed in the training room as I hit my mark perfectly. Tiny cracks
spread out from the larger one where my fist had hit.

I flipped around, kicking my foot into her side.
The witch shattered into a thousand pieces that scattered across the
floor.

The final two witches sent their assaults toward
me, one sending a ball of fire toward my head while the other
attempted to bring the ceiling down on top of me. Focused on
vengeance, I shifted easily, moving out of the way as a large chunk
of rock fell where I had been standing.

I became a black shadow racing between them,
forming thin ropes of smoke that extended from my hands and snaked
around the feet of the witches on either side. I reformed my body,
then yanked the ropes fast, pulling their feet out from under them.
The witches fell face-first toward the ground. I pulled my brother’s
axe from the holster and brought it down on them one at a time,
slicing through their necks with such force, I cracked the stone
floor beneath them.

With all four witches dead in a matter of seconds,
I fell to my knees in the center of the training room, letting the
axe fall from my hand.

Despair and anger surged through me and I let my
head fall back as I cried out. Tears fell across my face, freezing
before they dropped to the floor and shattered. I wanted revenge. I
deserved vengeance.

But more than anything, I wanted my brother back
by my side.

The door to the training room opened and Andros
walked through, his blue eyes dark and worried.

I looked away from him, not wanting to see him or
hear his excuses right now.

“You don’t need to be here right now,”
I said, reaching for the fallen axe. “I’m not in a mood
to be reasoned with.”

He didn’t leave. Instead, he leaned against
the wall by the door, watching me.

“You have grown so much these past few
years,” he said. “You’re a great warrior when you
have something in front of you worth fighting for.”

I gripped the handle of the axe so tight my hand
hurt from the pressure of it.

“But even a great warrior cannot defeat an
entire coven of witches alone,” he said. “These witches
you killed here were just illusions. They are programmed to fight a
certain way, but as long as we don’t fully understand the power
and magic behind the witches of the Order of Shadows, they are going
to remain unpredictable.”

“If you came here to talk me out of going
after my brother, you can leave right now.”

“I came here to let you know that I want to
be there by your side when you go after him,” he said.

I turned, studying his face. “But Lea said
the council decided against going through the portal.”

“For now,” he said. “But that
doesn’t mean we can’t go in a year or two.”

I slung the axe over my shoulder. Of course. He
didn’t want to stand with me now. He wanted to put off the
fight for as long as possible. In a year, he would say we should wait
just one more year.

“It will never be enough,” I said, my
jaw tight. “We will never understand them completely without
facing them in battle. It’s the only way to know their
strengths and discover their weaknesses. And you will never have the
courage to fight them.”

“I have fought them,” he said, moving
off the wall to step closer to me. “In the beginning of The
Resistance, we all fought them. We did exactly what you’re
trying to do now. We rushed in, like fools, thinking we could kill
them with our anger and rage. I watched some of my best friends die
in the blink of an eye. So don’t tell me I have no courage.”

He rarely spoke of those times when they lost so
much.

“Fighting them didn’t teach us
anything back then,” he said. “All we learned was that
they cast their magic so fast, we were helpless against them.”

“There has to be a way,” I said.
“We’ve been studying them for years. We know so much more
now than you did back then. We’ve been training harder. We can
defeat them, I know we can.”

“You’re a fool if you think you can go
through that portal and ever come home again,” he said.

I swallowed and turned away from him. “What
choice do I have?” I asked. “Aerden means everything to
me. He’s like a part of my own soul. Without him, I don’t
even know who I am anymore.”

“I understand, but—”

“How could you possibly understand?” I
asked. “You don’t know what it’s like to have a
twin. It’s different from just having a brother. Together, we
were stronger.”

“I remember,” he said, raising an
eyebrow.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean
you remember?” I asked. “You never even met me until
Aerden was gone.”

He shook his head, the corners of his mouth
turning up into a smile. “That’s not true,” he
said. “All this time together and you really don’t
remember me?”

I lowered the axe, staring at his face.

He shrugged. “I wasn’t particularly
memorable as a shadowling,” he said. “But I remember the
two of you. I envied you. When you were together, it was like you
could read each other’s minds. You played off each other like
you were one person, but twice as strong and twice as cunning.”

“You knew us as shadowlings?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “My mother
worked in the castle as one of the queen’s handmaidens. I grew
up right there alongside you and Aerden and the princess. I watched
you, mostly, but there were a few times we actually played together.”

I shook my head, not remembering him at all. But
then, at the edge of my memory, I did remember a boy. Shy and quiet.
Always following us around. “There was one boy I remember
playing with, but his name was—”

“Dragon,” he said, laughing.

My eyes widened. “Yes,” I said,
remembering now.

He pointed to the red dragon on his armband. “A
nickname,” he said. “Me, my father, my grandfather. For
generations, we have passed down this unique ability to breathe red
fire. We are also immune to any type of fire magic. For centuries,
our family has been called dragons. When I was a shadowling, my
mother called me Dragon because I reminded her so much of my father.”

From conversations we’d had in the past, I
knew that Andros had lost his father to the Order of Shadows when he
was very young. Andros believed he had been taken through an emerald
portal near the village of Dumar where he was born.

“I had no idea that was you,” I said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He smiled. “I kind of liked having it as my
little secret,” he said. “I was so shy as a shadowling,
always watching you but never dreaming I could be as strong or have a
friend I loved so much. But I do remember how special the bond
between you was, even back then. I remember how much he meant to
you.”

“How can you know that and still expect me
to stay?”

Andros moved to stand in front of me. “I
don’t,” he said. “But you can’t expect me to
come with you when it would put everything I’ve worked for in
danger.”

“I have to go,” I said.

He put his hand on my shoulder. “I know, my
friend. I know.”

H closed his eyes, thinking. Finally, he opened
tear-filled eyes and nodded. “Okay. I will help you for as long
as I can,” he said. “Lea, Azira, Ourelia and I will come
with you to the portal. We’ll hold it open and clear for you
for as long as possible, but we won’t go through with you.
Denaer, I need for you to understand that if the witches attempt to
send anyone through to this side to fight or if the hunter comes back
for us, we will go. We will leave you there if we have to.”

“I understand.” I clapped my hand on
his neck and smiled. “Thank you, friend.”

Relief flooded through me. They would come with me
as far as the portal, but once it was open, I would have to decide to
go through on my own. If I was going to save Aerden, that part I
would have to do alone.

There was no way to know if I would cross through
and ever be able to get home to the shadow world again. All I knew
for sure was that I had to try.

I owed my brother that much after all he’d
been willing to sacrifice for me.

Over the next few weeks, I lived on high alert.

We had a plan in place, but in order to get
through to the human world, we needed the portal to be opened.

And that meant we needed the Order of Shadows to
open it. We knew from watching other portals that sometimes it could
be months between rituals, while at some portals the rituals would
happen nearly back-to-back. There seemed to be no set time of year or
predictable space apart.

So we watched and waited.

We understood from other portal rituals and the
books we had taken from the hunter’s den that a demon was
marked simply by saying their name. Aerden had been different since
he was a prima. He had to be there before the ritual even began and
he had to be lured out from the king’s city. They had needed
his power to create the portal.